following… got lots of thoughts on that app 🙊

searched for ire posts, did not disappoint. my little guy also wanted to come with

holy… didn’t even think about that. as someone who grew up in the balkans in early 2000s, it’s coming full circle 👁️👄👁️ milkas are once again a luxury

the taxes paid then factor into the deficit number - but do not act as revenue. it’s more of a marker of how much the govt has invested vs. taxes not yet collected from the private sector.

to clarify the loop (simplified for brevity)

1) congress appropriates money for xyz
2) federal reserve “transfers” $ to commercial banks. (i.e. with a keystroke $ is made)
3) commercial banks transfer $ to xyz agency
4) xyz employees use this $ to purchase goods and pay their taxes

lastly, the federal government is the largest employer in the US. federal wages set the prices for talent for the rest of the market. if we eliminate the govt as the biggest employer, it leaves us even more exposed to the mercy (greed) of oligarch billionaires.

so what DOGE is doing isn’t about “saving money” but rather aimed to destroy any element of a social net that exists. the government doesn’t need money - they need OUR labor. the US dollar has no value without its people.

we’ve gotten so stuck drinking the big social kool aid it’s hard to see other possibilities…

like where do we even start when most of product design in the past decade has been about A/B testing buttons to maximize sales and dark pattern loops 🤡

that’s the exact question i had when we started the story - so i made this tool to get answers - although we don’t have unit level data, it marks areas where the median rent < 30% of entered pre-tax income, 1930-2022. *desktop works best, mobile updates coming soon www.wbez.org/interactive/...